Turku Jukupark opened on Sunday without bouncy castles after yesterday’s accident.
Bouncy castles have not caused more accidents in Finland than other amusement park equipment, says the leading researcher of the Accident Investigation Center (Otkes) Kai Valonen for STT.
However, the weather affects tall and light bouncy castles differently than heavier equipment.
Three children were injured yesterday in Jukupark in Turku, when the wind took three bouncy castles with it. Valonen does not comment on yesterday’s accident, but comments on the subject on a general level.
Valonen says that constant attention must be paid to fixing bouncy castles.
“It doesn’t really work to explain that every now and then there is a gust, and then it goes away. We do know Finnish weather conditions. It’s not rocket science and it doesn’t cost anything if you install the fasteners properly.”
According to Valonen, you can use, for example, wedges or cast weights to attach bouncy castles. Valonen says that it is possible to attach the bouncy castle so that it stays in place in Finnish weather conditions.
“When making attachments, you don’t necessarily think about the worst possible moments.”
An excerpt has received photos and other material about the accident from the police and is discussing the matter with the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes).
According to Valonen, accidents leading to injuries occur in amusement parks every few years.
Jukupark’s water park was opened today as normal, but by the park manager Hannu Hellman’s according to the amusement park’s remaining four bouncy castles will remain closed at least until the investigation of the accident is complete.
“After that, we’ll see if they will still be put into use,” Hellman tells STT.
Two of the injured children had to be hospitalized. The severity of their injuries was not assessed to STT by the rescue service or the police on Sunday. According to the Southwestern Finland police, the investigation of the accident will start at the beginning of the week.
Hellman says that Jukupark’s bouncy castles are hammered firmly into the ground with long wedges. However, the whirlwind was so strong that it lifted the three bouncy castles to a height of several meters in an instant.
The rescue service of Varsinais-Suomen estimated for STT on Saturday that the bouncy castles were approximately 2-5 meters high.
According to Hellman, the operating instructions are that the bouncy castles are taken out of use in high winds.
“We had time to empty the small bouncy castles, but the whirlwind passed through the park so quickly that we didn’t have time to empty the bouncy castles that were in the accident,” says Hellman.
According to Hellman, the bouncy castles are safety approved and other safety measures, such as the safety signs on the bouncy castles and the safety fences for the fans, are in order. However, Hellman plans to contact the device manufacturer.
According to Hellman, there have been no equipment accidents in Jukupark before.
“This is a really strange and shocking situation. On behalf of the staff, however, the situation was handled well in cooperation with the rescue service,” says Hellman.
I supported in a recently published in the instructions we remind you that the use of bouncy castles must be stopped when the wind limit is exceeded. According to Tukes, it became aware of one near-miss situation last summer, where a bouncy castle was lifted up by the force of the wind.
Tukes says that several fatal bouncy castle accidents have happened abroad in the past.
Tukes supervises the safety of amusement parks, but the responsibility for safety rests with the service provider.
In Finland, serious amusement park accidents have been rare, but serious incidents have occurred from time to time. In 2016, a bouncy castle full of children in Rauma collapsed, and one child fell into the sea.
In 2018, a child fell from a moving Octopus device at Linnanmäki in Helsinki and broke his elbow.
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